Day 185 (1): E.B.C. trek day 11, Pheriche to Tengboche (3870m)

Tengboche Travel Blog

Thanks to the people I met here and/or travelled with: John (Scotland)

Today was a really, really long day. It makes more sense to do the walk from Pheriche to Namche in two days, but we had decided to do it in one day and try to catch an earlier flight back to Kathmandu.

The total walk was 28 kilometres, most of it downhill. For the occasion I had created a playlist on my MP3 player. Over the past few days I had continued the tradition Ed and I started with themed playlists in India. After having gone through all the colours (yellow, red, white, black - especially the latter resulted in an interesting playlist) I now picked all the songs which had any words in them related to walking.

Tengboche in the distance

So I created a playlist of the songs which contained the words 'Walk', 'Run', 'Travel', 'Move', 'Shoe' or 'Boot'. It worked perfectly. As we entered Namche Bazaar in the late afternoon, the last song on my playlist had just finished. For those interested, the entire playlist is at the end of this blog entry.

Like yesterday, I insisted on a lunch stop halfway. This time Sanjeev had no objections and we stopped at Tengboche, where I had spent one night on the way up. The culinary highlight of my trip had been the snickers pie I'd had at the lodge and I definitely wanted to have another one. In a moment of stupidity I offered Sanjeev one as well. I figured we'd have lunch all together (Sanjeev, John, John's guide, Rabin, and his porter, Mhujo) and I figured it would be a nice gesture to Sanjeev to offer him a nice sweet he'd never buy for himself, especially after yesterday's argument.

Some patches of farmland

A bad idea. I was probably getting paranoid, but I'd swear I heard Sanjeev correct the lady at the lodge when she repeated the order, saying “na ek snickers pie” (no, one snickers pie). The Nepali had their lunch in the kitchen, so I never found out whether Sanjeev had his snickers pie or not. He never mentioned it to me. Never thanked me for it, never told me it was good (or bad), nothing. The only time he mentioned it was when he asked me to pay for the two snickers pies. John too noticed he acted a bit shifty.

The reason for my paranoia was because, well, I didn't trust Sanjeev. John called him a wide-boy. He acted as if he'd been the best guide ever getting me to the top of Kala Patthar, after which his work was done and on the way down he was barely doing his

During the walk today as well.

John and I at the gate to Tengboche

It had been Rabin, John's guide, looking after me. At one point the track was going steeply downhill and I fell a bit behind. It had been Rabin waiting for me and making sure I was safe. Sanjeev had been nowhere to be found. When we finished our lunch I had searched for Sanjeev and the other guides and found them in the kitchen, eating their sherpa stew. I saw no snickers pie on the table. As I said, Sanjeev never mentioned it. The other guides never mentioned it (I would imagine Sanjeev to have shared the pie had he had it). But worst of all, about two hours after lunch I heard Sanjeev complaining that he was hungry. I casually asked if he had not eaten at lunch to which he replied “yes, but it was only a bowl of sherpa stew”. I'll tell you, if you eat one of those snickers pies at Tengboche, there is no way you will be hungry again for the rest of the day!

I know I'm getting all worked up by a three euro dessert here, but the fact of the matter is that I did not trust my guide and this incident was particularly dodgy.

Tengboche monastery

I'll never have proof, but as far as I was concerned this was the end of my working relation with my guide.